sol sunday: reading scripture in community

Of the varieties of conversational threads which inevitably bubble to the surface when the sol café is in session, there are two which I want to highlight from last Sunday’s get together.  How did Jesus read Scripture?  And can scripture lead us beyond the words themselves?  The passage we were looking at was the episode at the beginning of Luke’s gospel (Luke 4: 14-21) where Jesus “went to the synagogue, as was his custom”, and upon being given a scroll, picks a passage from Isaiah and reads it aloud.

It is no accident that Jesus reads (and then interprets) the scripture in the context of a public gathering of a worshiping community.  While we all should read the scriptures privately, the model we are given at the outset of Jesus' public ministry is, well, the public and communal reading, hearing and interpreting of scripture.  Does this setting, this public and communal act, mean anything?  In an age of individualism and ‘private interpretation’, it seems to point to a fundamental form of reading;  in community.

The second thing that struck me is this:  can we read Scripture, and experience the sheer wonder and joy of who God is -  can the act of reading scripture take us beyond the thing itself, raise us up, as it were, to a territory we could never venture into on our own.?

Comments

[Ian McKenzie]

From personal experience, I would say a qualified yes: not all the time and not every passage. I pretty sure the count of the tribes of Israel in Numbers would not have the same effect as Isaiah 55 or 1 Corinthians 15. ;) I think that if we do not read with at least some sense of being taken beyond the thing itself, we run the risk of the thing becoming merely a set of rules and regulations.

[joseph]

I think I would tend to agree with that, Ian. Certainly there have been parts of Scripture which have moved me to consider (perhaps see?) the reality of God in a new way. One that comes to my mind is from Job 38 - "...when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy". I get a sense of the wonder of the eternity of God beyond what my "normal" experience is, if that makes any sense.

I also think that the context of "reading as part of worship" lends itself to reading in a new way - whether that be private or as part of a larger worshiping community. And then finally there is the community part - where someone else can open my eyes to a new sense that perhaps I did not consider before.

[Erin]

When I was in grad school we used to sit around discussing what four books of the Bible we'd choose to take on a desert island with us (we were nerds with no lives :-)). None of the Christians chose Numbers but our Jewish landlord said she could live without Leviticus. It is an easier question I guess if you start with only five books.
I appreciated your comments about reading in community Joe (back to the issue of the communal vs the private). I like reading commentaries/sermons from different times and places in the life of the church - it broadens my sense of community and what scripture has meant to Christians in circumstances different from mine.

[Leslie]

I like all that has been said and with reference to the public, community aspect of scripture reading and worship I lean towards 'to everything there is a season'. Jesus also retreated into the garden to pray and similarly for us times of trial often end up to be isolating in ways even a good friend or caring group cannot overcome...it just seems to be part of the process. It is at those times that scripture reading and worship are powerfully individual.

Granted, it is hopefully experienced with the awareness that the community awaits and with an expectation of a joyous return.

Just a side thought. Great post, Joe.

[ron]

In the Midrash, the great body of Jewish stories, speculations, and explanations that explores the scriptures, there’s a legend that Moses had to raise his staff twice over the waters of the Red Sea before they parted so the Israelites could pass through to make their final escape from the armies of Egypt . The first time, nothing happened. But the second time, some of the people actually began to step into the water as if to walk across. Only then did God open the way for them. As faith communities we are constantly stepping into the reality fo God's story.

I think that is why it is important to be reading scripture in the context of community. So the stories begin to embody and transform the community. the community begins to live and breathe the story...the story begins to expand beyond the margins of the community.

Great thoughts Joe, Peace...Ron+